First Presidential debate features Moderator manipulation [Video]

When it comes to last night’s first of three planned Presidential debates, some writing has already been done. Doug Schoen of Fox News said President Trump won. So did David Bossie:

To any reasonable person watching, it was clear that President Trump came prepared and resoundingly defeated former Vice President Joe Biden at Tuesday night’s first presidential debate in Cleveland.

You have to bring you’re “A” game to go toe-to-toe with the champ and unsurprisingly, Democratic presidential nominee Biden couldn’t compete. Sadly, that doesn’t matter to Biden’s allies in the liberal media who will ignore the facts as sure as the sun will rise in the morning.

California Representative David Swallwell penned that VP Biden won the debate, though Swallwell was unable to elicit specific policy points in his piece. Most of it looks like it was written before the debate or with no knowledge of what was actually discussed in the debate, and interspersed are a scant few and vague policy points. For Rep. Swallwell, the insult was the policy:

Biden was spot-on when he quoted Trump’s own words back to him: “‘It is what it is’ because you are who you are.”

In other words, for Swallwell, Biden won for existing. Perhaps in this very strange Democrat’s mind, a frog would be a better presidential candidate than President Trump. Just because. Because Trump.

Certainly the punditry on both sides is claiming wins simultaneously. The unsecured characteristic of presidential debates, plus the advance of showmanship instead of policy-rich discussion and comparison and contrast are all factors that make presidential debates often look more like pathetic clown shows. Indeed, that was a criticism the newsies were making after the debate, as well, no one won, nobody’s minds would have been changed by this debate…

But in watching it myself, I did see a few characteristics I want to lay out:

• Joe Biden was on his game far more than in some of the awkward moments we have seen him do. He is a good politician, and this was placed on display by the “compassionate, pleading for reason” tone the former Vice President used in speaking directly to the audience and viewers about how bad Donald Trump is.
• Donald Trump was loaded with information. The way he speaks is often rather flamboyant and bombastic, but serious listening is rewarded with real information. Democrats are not interested in real information from the President, so they would likely do the equivalent of stopping their ears and yelling “la-la-la-la-la… not listening!!!” no matter what Mr. Trump said.
• President Trump had one great line last night “I have done more in forty-seven months than you have done in forty-seven years.” – this is very difficult to argue. Joe Biden has not ever held an executive position in government, never been a governor or a mayor, and Vice Presidents are usually not policymakers. In this comparison, Mr. Trump absolutely is correct.
• President Trump is more concerned with getting things done.
• Chris Wallace, the moderator, showed a remarkable consistency in cutting the President off while he defended his record, even when the stated format of the debate allowed him to do so. This happened multiple times during the debate. but especially significant was around 1:05:00 in the debate video given, where Biden and Trump each had two minutes, but in discussion afterward Wallace tried to move on to the next question before the discussion component actually took place. Here:

• President Biden articulated a desire for people to be “safe”, an indication of the politics of fear over COVID infection.
• The two men “debated” (really traded insults and argued) like they really do not like one another, but both men actually seem very well aware that some of this is showmanship. This showed at the very beginning, where they each asked the other “how ya doing?” before starting, since they agreed not to shake hands in deference to COVID fears.
• Biden was far from feeble and doddering, but he was not armed with real information. He was unable to show how his policy ideas about COVID would have yielded a different result than what the US presently has. He shot at Trump’s alleged “failure” with regard to the coronavirus, but the facts are that the dynamics of the virus are still not well understood, and the quality of data accuracy on deaths has long been questionable. Doctors have repeatedly reported being instructed to put cause of death as COVID-19 when it was not so. A recent report indicated as many as 94% of the death reports attributed to COVID may have been from some other cause. It is impossible to tell what the truth is in the United States because COVID, like everything else important, has been radically politicized.
• Joe Biden’s policy regarding COVID indeed appears to be “shut everything down until COVID goes away.” This is a gamble, because there is good reason

So, who won? I do not really know. But Trump was on point with real information, Joe Biden was on point with emotion and the notion that big government control over everybody would save the country. When one sorts out all the name-calling, there is some meat to be found in this debate. Perhaps in that way it served its purpose, to show American viewers who these candidates are and how they differ in their visions for the nation and how they plan to execute that vision. I can say I remain a Trump supporter, not deterred at all. I am also glad to see that Biden was not completely feeble… at least, not this time.

One down, two to go.